THE lawyer of the Pablicos family that donated a 7,000 sq. m. property to the Dagupan City government in 2018 slammed the article reported by Ms. Yolanda Sotelo that appeared in the December 3, 2019 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for insinuating that the donated land was taken back by the bank.

Lawyer Francisco B. Angeles, legal counsel of the Pablicos, took the article titled “Bank Takes Back Land Donated for Evacuation Site” in his December 5, 2019 letter to the newspaper on, a copy of which was furnished The Punch.

“Let me be clear — the donation of 7,000 square meters to the city for evacuation site and other purposes remains and stands,” Angeles stressed. The donation was made during the administration of then Mayor Belen Fernandez.        

Angeles appeared before the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of Dagupan on November 26 to clarify the report of one Dagupan radio station saying that the donated land was mortgaged to the Land Bank of the Philippines and was already foreclosed.     

He said he told the Dagupan SP during a public hearing on November 26 that while he did not have the documents to prove the segregation of the donated portion from the 50,000 sq.m. lot, the PDI article omitted his statement that the donor transfer documents will be given to the city on January 2020.

Angeles added that the news article also failed to report that the Pablicos had made it clear to the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) when they applied for the loan that the 7,000 sq. m. were already donated. As a result, LBP required the segregation of the donated portion as a condition for the release of their credit/loan.

Angeles clarified that the donation made to the city was agreed upon as early as 2014 through the auspices of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor (PCUP) long before they applied for a loan with Land Bank.

The donation was announced by the Pablicos, he added, during the pre-demolition conference held as a pre-condition for the demolition of the illegally constructed houses of six families who lost in ejectment case that the Pablicos filed against them.

Angeles said in an act of liberality, the Pablicos agreed to make the donation to the city with 75 square meters per family for the six families and that all the legal expenses for the donated land and will be shouldered by the city and the six donee-families.

Prior to this, ex-Mayor Belen Fernandez assured the people of Dagupan that the Pablicos, who are big businessmen dealing on heavy machinery in Manila, have a word of honor. (Leonardo Micua) 

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